Irish Catholic nuns offer compensation for Church child sex abuse

The Sisters of Mercy in Dublin have offered $193 million in money and property to those who were abused by nuns in their order.

The religious order made the announcement Thursday, saying the amount was “reparation for the suffering of children while in residential institutions within Mercy care."

The Sisters of Mercy ran five schools for girls in Dublin, and physical assaults and humiliation were a regular occurrence. One of the Order’s institutions at Goldenbridge was notorious for the level of abuse carried out under its roof.

The Order released a statement outlining the reason behind their giving the large amount of money.

"It is the sincere hope and desire of the congregation that this contribution will help toward the enhancement of the lives of former residents," the statement read.

The abuses carried out by the Sisters of Mercy were listed in the recent Ryan Report, which shed light on the systematic abuse that was carried out in Church-run institutions from the 1930s up to the early 1990s.

In the report, Justice Sean Ryan commented that the severity of abuse at Goldenbridge created a "pervasive climate of fear."

In late November, another religious order in Ireland, the Christian Brothers, announced they would pay $242 million in restitution for child sex abuse that happened in their schools and institutions.

The Ryan Report’s shocking findings not only revealed the abhorrent level of child abuse rampant in Church-run institutions, but also uncovered the lengths to which some members of the Catholic Church went to cover up the atrocities.